Gerard Butler Back Again For Third Of The Fallen Trilogy

Variety reports that 46-year old Scot and action star veteran Gerard Butler will reprise his role as Secret Service agent Mike Banning. Therefore making a trilogy with Angel Has Fallen.

The third installment follows on from Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen. Where Butler played the key role within both films and now he is ready to suit up again. And, mind the pun, pick up the fallen pieces.

Production is said to begin in earnest during the first half of 2017, with Millennium Films taking the reigns of the project. Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt are in the middle of writing the script, but there is no director as of yet.

Franchise Going From Bad To Worse

Gerard Butler London Has Fallen

There is no kind way to dress this up. The Fallen franchise should have done just that after the first movie. That original 2013 action thriller scored a whopping $161m at the box office from a $70m budget. While ticket sales were high, the critics were more of a mixed bag. It had a mixture of good performances with an intriguing plot, yet failed to deliver on the promise.

Fast forward three years to the 2016 sequel and, while it somehow performed better on the big screen with $195.7m in takings, it was universally panned. Guess using tired cliches and tapping into xenophobia doesn't leave audiences raving. But in Hollywood, as always, money won out and they made enough to justify flick number three.

Third To Shift From A Physical Fall To A Character One

Fallen Trilogy

A crumb of comfort is that Angel Has Fallen will have a different approach to the previous two. Instead of a city or monument,  attackers will be trying to take down Banning’s character. Butler is clearly invested in the series, as he will be given producing credits to match his on screen fee.

While other names for casting are being kept under wraps for the time being, the producers have put pen to paper to make their involvement official. Alan Siegel, Mark Gill, John Thompson, and Matt O’Toole will join Butler in that department. While the executive producers will comprise of Avi Lerner, Trevor Short, Christine Otal and Heidi Jo Markel.

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